11-28-2007 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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NORTHWEST ASSOCIATED CONSULTANTS, INC. 4800 Olson Memorial Highway, Suite 202, Golden Valley, MN 55422 Telephone: 763.231 .2555 Facsimile: 763.231 .2561 planners@nacplanning.com MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Blesener and Little Canada City Council FROM: Stephen Grittman DATE: November 21, 2007 RE: Little Canada — "Huot" Property — 565 Little Canada Road FILE NO: 758.09 - 07.35 A party has requested to be exempted from the City's pending moratorium on subdivisions to permit a plat of the "Huot" property at Little Canada Road and Edgerton Street. The sketch of their subdivision relies on a series of private driveways to provide access to some of the lots. Both the zoning and subdivision ordinances specify that lots must have "frontage" on a public street. However, it is clear from the ordinance language that "frontage" is not "access" — neither ordinance addresses access in terms of requiring it from the lot's legal frontage. As such, a subdivision that provides each new lot with legal frontage meets the technical requirements of the City's ordinances. There may be other reasons for concern, however, depending on the situation. Because the City can not be assured that private driveways will be maintained in such a way as to ensure emergency vehicle access (such as fire or police), cities often require full public street access, not just frontage. In this case, it would appear that it would be possible to construct a public street along Edgerton (a sort of "frontage road ") that would provide access to each of the new lots, without disturbing the existing home. The intent of the moratorium is to study the impact of subdivision of the remaining "infill" parcels around the City and examine whether different standards of development need to be considered. One of the issues to be studies may be whether frontage and access requirements need to be modified to address some of the potential subdivisions. The Huot property has a number of the characteristics that have resulted in the interest in a moratorium on such subdivisions, including access issues, adjacency to other